Ideas

Photo from journaling-junkie

I’ve been on both sides of this coin now (the journalism/PR coin, that is)*. This article demonstrates the way both sides depend on each other in a weird way. Symbiosis (read: the remora and the shark) was never supposed to be a pretty package.

This should be required reading for everyone in school for PR (because of distributing press releases) and journalism (because of time management issues and fun pitch ideas). Fun pitch ideas are something I've always valued, first as a reader and then later as a writer.

When I used to pitch weird and cool ideas as a job, I loved putting myself into first-person experiences like this. That was how I hung out in a funeral home, went ice sailing and learned how to work with aerial silk. 

I'm back on the journaling train, writing in my notebook each night about my day. It was a habit that started when I was around 5 years old and, with some lapses, I now have a personal record that stretches over the past 17 years. CRAZY. (Also, as it turns out, 15-year-old Emo Janina just turns into early-20s Overly-Emotional-But-Moreso-Neurotic Janina. Hrm.)

I try to integrate some level of personal social experimentation in my life, if anything, just to keep things interesting. A while ago, I tried to keep all internet links to myself (no sharing!) and, before that, I was on Tinder to see if it actually works (it does, to an extent)(and not always as a hook-up app).

Point is, keep things interesting. That's something I miss about journalism - it's so easy to inject yourself into experiences you're writing about, or use work as an avenue to try new things. That's not to say it's impossible for me to do that now. It's just that it's cool to do it on the clock.

*I’ve effectively cast it all off with a new job in advertising. Who knows where the world will take you, amirite?